While much of the talk about WFAN’s Mike Francesa Tuesday was about his confirmation of the long-discussed news that he planned to leave his drive-time show there in December, there was also some about the #Fartgate fallout from Monday. In case you missed it, there appeared to be a loud fart on-air during Francesa’s morning app-only discussion of the New York Jets and Adam Gase, which led to The New York Daily News running a “Mike Francesa appears to rip fart while ripping Adam Gase,” story, which in turn led to Francesa spending several minutes denying the fart. And now, that’s escalated to toilet manufacturer American Standard offering Francesa a personalized bidet seat. First, here’s the apparent fart (0:18).
https://twitter.com/BackAftaThis/status/1191370941256871940
Here’s Francesa denying that he supplied the fart Monday afternoon:
https://twitter.com/BackAftaThis/status/1191528807737577472
And here is the incredible letter that American Standard sent to Francesa and provided to Awful Announcing:
Yes, of course corporate PR efforts come with some skepticism, but this one is delightful, especially with that very funny letter and with the “First time, long time” reference, a sports media meme so ingrained Francesa even referenced it in his first-ever tweet last year. And that adds to the weaponization of “First time, long time,” also used in April by the judge who sentenced Francesa’s former WFAN colleague Craig Carton to more than three years in prison over Carton’s role in a ticket scam. Oh, and they worked in a “We’ll hang up and listen,” too. At any rate, this is pretty funny, and it’s well played by American Standard. And it’s a fun addendum to the #Fartgate saga.
